Goal Setting

 

What's the difference between a dream and a goal?

 

A dream is something that floats around in your head and makes for good conversation if you can find someone who is willing to listen.  A goal is something that is written down and has direction, purpose, clear outcomes and objectives, and has the potential to deliver your dreams.

 

The thing most people struggle with is:

 

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SET GOALS"

 

Don't worry.  We all crawled before we walked and we walked before we ran.  Just as you have learned to do everything else in your life, goal setting is a learned skill and an absolutely necessary and valuable tool that you must adopt and practice if you truly want to change your life forever.  Now, there's good news and there's bad news (not really bad, just "different").  The good news is - right here and now you will learn how to change the rest of your life.  The bad news is - you can NOT do it in your present form.  What I mean is that the habits you have today, the way you think, act, and apply yourself today, and the size of your world (aka: "comfort zone"), will prevent you from reaching your goals and dreams.  First and foremost:  YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOU!  That's right, and this must be crystal clear.  A transformation needs to occur within you.  If this personal transformation doesn't occur everything will continue to be the same and you'll still be sitting in the same place getting the same results.  This is NOT an option.  You CAN change - you can do this.  You WANT to do this.  You WILL do this!  Before you are finished reading these instructions you will have a complete understanding of this "you need to change you" concept.  Actually, the process will have already started!

 

Before we go any farther there are a couple things we need to go over regarding goals.

 

First, there are 3 rules that you must follow regarding your goals:

• Rule #1 - You must write down your goals.
• Rule #2 - You must write down your goals.
• Rule #3 - NEVER forget rules #1 and #2.

 

*** The important point here is that if you write down your goals you will always have a target to shoot for ***

 

Second, a "goal" absolutely-positively does NOT care who owns it or what duration of time has been assigned to it.  You're the one that will give it life and you'll decide when it's going to be reached.  It's yours for the taking!

 

Goals - "long term" vs. "short term".  Generally speaking, short term goals would be considered within the next 1-2 years whereas long term goals would be considered all periods of time past 2 years.  It is worth mentioning that it's truly only important and meaningful to the person setting the goal plans because one person may perceive 2 years as short term but yet another person may perceive 2 years as long term.  Regardless of the goals, short or long term, they are your road map - designed by you and for you - for the purpose of getting you from Point A to Point B in the period of time that you've specified.  It doesn't mean there won't be detours, traffic jams, pot holes, accidents, and construction zones along the way.  The road to success is ALWAYS under construction and that's why it will be imperative that you stay strong-minded, focused, and determined in the quest to reach your goals.  At the same time you will need to acquire and demonstrate some patience, flexibility, and creativity as you travel the path to get there.  There is always more than one way to get there so if one way doesn't work you will find or create another way to get there.  You absolutely will.

 

You may already have specific goals in mind but here is a list of some different areas of your life you may want to consider:

 

- Personal development and growth.

- Health (spiritual, physical, emotional).

- Family (present and/or future).

- Relationships (spiritual, personal,

   professional).

- Financial stability or beyond.

- Home location or relocation.

- Experiences to have or to share.

- Formal education or life experiences.

- Career and business development.

- Adventure and travel.

- Contributions or directly serving others.

NEED MORE SPECIFIC IDEAS?

- Quit smoking/drinking/drugs.

- Loose "x" percent body fat or "x" pounds .

- Be a better spouse/parent/child/friend.

- Become closer to God, study the bible.

- Rush for "x" yards, score "x" points/etc.

- Earn an "A" in this class.

- Learn a new language. 

- Make a minimum of "x" sales.

It's endless - only limited by you.

Your life = your dreams = your goals!

 

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OK.  Let me have your attention.  There's a lot of important things to remember here - but this is no doubt the most important part.  If you follow a goal plan that is easily remembered as "HUNGER", you will not only change the way you think about your future, you will change your future!

Here's the formula:

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H	Have clear and specific goals along with mental pictures of those goals.
U	Understand the sacrifices, obstacles, and emotions that you will experience.
N	Negative people or taking no action will create pain in your life.
G	Gather all the imaginable resources together that you will need.
E	Engage and execute your plan with all your energy, focus, and tools.
R	Rejoice, relax, and repeat the goal setting process.

 

H

Have clear and specific goals along with mental pictures of those goals.  Keep in mind that general goals will only get you general results - at best.  A specific goal will keep your mind and energy focused.  (Here's an example.  A general goal would be to drive to San Diego, California.  A specific goal would be to drive to 122 Beach Front Drive, San Diego, California.  You can see the difference between general and specific).

 

Your goal plan must start by answering the "5 - W's".

 

WHO:

Who is involved? Is it only you or will other people be directly involved? If other people are directly involved you will need to specify what you and every other person involved will be responsible for in order for you to reach the goal.

WHAT:

What is the goal? It needs to be as clear and specific as possible. The more time you spend defining the specifics of your goal, the easier your goal (target) will be for you to focus on. Your goal also needs to be an “attainable” goal. This means your goal needs to be significant enough to take you towards your dreams, make you work hard, develop new skills, attitudes, abilities, and thought processes. It needs to take you beyond your comfort zone. But, it also needs to be a realistic goal. Remember, a goal that may seem far reaching today will eventually become closer as you develop new abilities and skills. Don’t underestimate yourself and your ability to grow. We crawl before we walk. We walk before we run. You will be running – expect it - it's a process - give it some time.

WHERE:

Where is the goal to take place? Maybe the work is to take place in one or more different locations or maybe everything is to take place where you sit right now. Maybe the goal itself will take you to a completely different place. List the specifics.

WHEN:

When will your goal be reached - by what date specifically? You also need to have clearly defined ways to measure your progress along the way in order for you to be certain that you are on track and will reach your goal by the time or deadline that you have specified.

WHY:

Why do you desire this goal? What is the purpose for your goal and how will it serve you or serve others? This next sentence is EXTREMELY important and should NOT be ignored. ** Think about the feelings and emotions you will experience when you reach this goal – confidence, achievement, happiness and pleasure. Also, think about the feelings and emotions you would experience if you decided to do nothing and just forgot all about your goals - the feeling of pain and regret - OUCH! Imagine yourself experiencing those feelings and emotions and that will help motivate you to focus on your goals because ultimately your goals WILL deliver feelings and emotions to you or others important to you. It is as simple as choosing to experience pleasure (reaching your goals) or experience pain (making no attempts toward your goals). You MUST attach feelings and emotions (and a mental picture) to your goals. Another extremely important fact for you to understand and believe is that you are capable and worthy of reaching your goals. If you make the sacrifices and put in the work to reach your goals, you deserve it!

Also important and impossible to mention too many times - visualization, visualization, visualization!  You must get into the habit of closing your eyes and virtually seeing yourself reaching your goals.  Have the picture and experience in your mind - see it - take a mental picture of it.  This will make your goal setting easier because you have already seen it!  Now you just have to write down the steps to get there!

 

U

Understand the sacrifices, obstacles, and emotions that you will experience.  You need to understand and expect that you will not reach your goal without sacrificing "something".  You should also expect obstacles.  It is critically important that YOU do not become one of your obstacles!  It's imperative that you learn to see all obstacles as "learning opportunities".  You will learn how "not" to do something next time, or learn how to do something differently, or just learn how to be creative enough to go through, over, or around anything that crosses your path.  You should plan on experiencing some "up's and down's" emotionally.  Deal with it and keep moving forward.  Understand that successful people fail more frequently than anyone else because they are willing to take more risks than anyone else in order to reach their goals.  The important thing to note is that they learn from their failures and keep moving forward - and you will learn to do the same if you want to be successful.

 

N

Negative people or taking no action will create pain in your life.  Ready for a real eye-opener?  Regardless of what you may believe, there will be people you know who will want you to succeed and there will be other people who want to see you ... well ... fail.  It's true.  You do not have the time or space in your life for these negative people!  Ignore and avoid these people as if they don't even exist.  Something else to understand is that if you decide not to take action towards your goals you will most likely suffer pain and regret later in life.  And really, what do you have to lose?  Even if you fail miserable and don't learn one single lesson, you'll still be sitting in the exact same place as if you never tried at all!  Therefore, you've got absolutely nothing to lose so go ahead and put the pencil to the paper and start working on your goals!

 

G

Gather all the imaginable resources together that you will need.  Find and surround yourself with what or who you'll need because nobody has ever reached their goals or success by themselves - "somebody or something" helped them along the way.  It may be your belief in God, family or friends, spouse, teacher, books, mentor, different types of information or technology, financial resources, or even someone who has already accomplished what you are trying to do.  "Resources" will most likely come in many different forms.  Another note not to be overlooked - do NOT be too proud to ask for help.  You'll be amazed how many people will be willing to help you when they see your passion.  (Another tip: it's easier and cheaper to learn from someone else's mistakes, so listen and learn).  Remember:  You are evolving into a thinking and learning individual - act like one!

 

E

Engage and execute your plan with all your energy, focus, and tools.  You have meticulously created a specific goal plan.  You understand there will be sacrifices, obstacles (a.k.a. "learning opportunities"), and emotional peaks and valleys along the way.  You have accepted the fact that negative people have no place in your future.  You also acknowledge that doing nothing at all to reach your goals will cause pain and regret later in life.  You have gathered all your information, people, tools, and resources together.  You completely understand and appreciate that you will continue to develop and refine the skills, abilities, attitudes, and thought processes needed to reach your goals.  You recognize and accept that you are worthy of and deserve all of the fruits of your labor and the success that accompanies reaching your goals.  It's crucial that you understand and believe this to be true.  Every day you will continue to develop the self-image, attitude, and self-respect you need to handle the successes of your goals.  You and your goals are works in progress.  Be a student of life.  Be a student for life.  Now, you have all the pieces to the puzzle - get to work.  STAY HUNGRY!

 

R

Rejoice, relax, and repeat the goal setting process.  Congratulations.  At this point you will have successfully reached the goal you committed yourself to.  You worked hard, made sacrifices, and learned from your successes and failures along the way.  You have developed into a more confident and competent thinking and learning individual.  At this point you will need to give yourself a pat on the back and respectfully thank every person who helped you reach this milestone and invite them to celebrate with you.  Experience the happiness and pleasure of the moment.  Take a mental picture of it because in the future you will be looking BACK at it.  Sleep well tonight - tomorrow you go back to work because the "R" most definitely stands for "repeat".  "Get Hungry" is you creating and committing to the goal and "Stay Hungry" is you taking all the steps required in order to reach that goal.  The other part of "Stay Hungry" is the continued application of your hunger.  Keep up the great work!

 

HERE'S A BRIEF REVIEW

 

Your goals and dreams will give birth to new and specific thoughts, words, feelings and emotions which will cause you to generate specific plans to reach those goals.  Your desire and commitment to these goals will immediately and completely thrust you out of your comfort zone and you will learn, see, think, believe, act, grow, and experience things at a rate you never imagined possible when you once lived in that small and restrictive "comfort zone" of yesterday.  The repetition of newly learned actions will soon mature into new habits and as a result you will begin to experience successes that were not available to you prior to you being "hungry".  You WILL develop into an individual of character who now possesses the necessary skills and abilities and who is deserving and capable of reaching your goals.  Your new way of believing, thinking and doing will deliver your goals, which at this point may seem almost outgrown for a person of your confidence and experience. Time to "STAY HUNGRY" and keep going.

 

Listen, at the end of the day you are as successful as you CHOOSE to be.  You are as close to God as you CHOOSE to be.  You are the father/mother/brother/sister/child/friend you CHOOSE to be.  Your perception and beliefs are what you CHOOSE them to be.  Choose wisely.

 

YOUR GOALS AND DREAMS

NEW THOUGHTS, WORDS, FEELINGS, AND EMOTIONS

GOAL SETTING PLANS AND COMMITMENTS

ACTION, GROWING, LEARNING, THINKING, AND DOING

NEW HABITS PRACTICED, ESTABLISHED, AND REFINED

NEW PERSON OF CHARACTER, ATTITUDE, AND VISION

ENJOY YOUR SUCCESS.  REPEAT!

 

***  IMPORTANT  ***

THE GOAL FORMULA NEVER CHANGES

"H-U-N-G-E-R"

 

 

***  We have created some printable goal setting templates for you to download and start using today AND EVERYDAY.  We encourage you to use these for all your goal setting needs.

 

HELP OTHERS - share this goal setting information and these downloadable forms with your families, friends and co-workers and motivate them to take their goals, dreams, and lives to the next level.  Get Hungry - Stay Hungry.

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